Posted on 04/19/2016 6:17:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
Dear Wells Fargo Customer Service:
Recently, a friend sent me a picture of your 54-story Charlotte headquarters lit up with the colors of the transgendered pride flag. I attempted to contact you privately to register my strong objection to your company’s decision to take the wrong side in the nation’s raging cultural war. Unfortunately, your website was not sufficiently inclusive. It only allowed me 1,000 characters of space to leave a comment. It’s going to take a lot more than that so I decided to make this issue the subject of my weekly opinion column.
This isn’t my first negative experience with Wells Fargo’s aggressive activism. Several months ago, I walked into one of your branch offices to make a quick deposit. I made the mistake of wearing a black and purple tie, which one of your tellers mistakenly interpreted as a show of support for so-called anti-bullying legislation. Had I known that wearing purple was somehow supportive of “anti-bullying” measures I would have tossed that tie in the wastebasket long ago.
Nonetheless, the bank teller decided to invite me to wear the tie again the following week in support of anti-bullying measures designed to protect the LGBT community. Given that I am a teacher I decided to seize on this as a teachable moment.
First, I explained to your teller that I am a college professor who teaches a class on the subject of crime and the First Amendment. The course deals with constitutional limitations on the advocacy of illegal conduct, the definition and regulation of obscenity, and specific topics like “hate crime” penalty enhancement statutes.
After letting the teller know about my experience teaching on free speech issues, I informed him that I oppose so-called anti-bullying legislation. I briefly explain that such measures are often thinly veiled efforts to curb speech that is clearly protected by the First Amendment.
The response of the bank teller shocked me. Rather than becoming angry like most gay activists he responded by saying, “Well, that’s also unacceptable.” In other words, the teller gave the right answer!
For the record, I commend your employee for calmly responding to criticism of measures he obviously supports. That shows me he has some understanding and appreciation of the free exchange of ideas. Nonetheless, our exchange raises a serious question about professional protocol.
The First Amendment clearly protects the teller’s right to lobby for legislation against bullying. Whether the specific measures that flow from his advocacy pass constitutional muster is another matter. Whether it is appropriate to pursue this advocacy in the workplace with customers who are there to do business unrelated to politics is another matter still.
It in no way conflicts with my First Amendment advocacy to tell you that it’s just not appropriate to try to recruit people into support of your pet political causes while doing business in a crowded line at a bank. If the generalization seems harsh or unwarranted then please consider the following hypothetical questions:
*If your teller sees someone wearing a Christian cross around her neck would it be appropriate for him to seize the moment and invite her to a Christian Coalition banquet while she is trying to make a simple deposit?
*If your teller sees a customer wearing a maternity blouse would it be appropriate for him to seize the moment and invite her to a pro-life rally while she is trying to cash a check?
*If your teller sees a customer wearing a yarmulke would it be appropriate for him to seize the moment and invite him a pro-Israel rally while he is trying to make a transfer of funds?
I suspect that you would not accept one of your tellers doing any of these things in the workplace. In fact, you would deem them to be unnecessary invitations to controversy. You would also wonder how the person made such leaping inferences about the customer’s politics based on their manner of dress.
Of course, in your world you view gay activism differently than you view the causes represented in those hypothetical questions. You see gay activism as being entirely uncontroversial. It’s just the kind of thing any fair-minded person would accept. But the banking world is no longer the same as the rest of the world.
A few years ago, Bank of America fired my friend Frank Turek from his position as a management consultant simply because he had written a book expressing opposition to same-sex marriage. The consequence of this kind of intolerance in the banking industry has become obvious: Your industry is now becoming an ideological echo chamber, rather than a place of true diversity.
Ideological echo chambers are dangerous places. When people simply sit around reinforcing each other’s beliefs rather than challenging them bad decisions inevitably follow. One day you’re advocating for a government imposed end to bullying. The next day you’re firing people who refuse to accept your definition of marriage. In the end, you’re lighting up the sky in celebration of those who pay surgeons vast sums to mutilate their genitals.
So I would like to conclude this letter with just two simple requests. First, when I come through the line at one of your banks could you just process my request without trying to show me how I can help you rally in support for the homosexual agenda? Second, could you please demonstrate real courage by flying that transgendered flag from another Wells Fargo building?
You can start with your corporate office in Qatar.
Thanks and have a blessed day,
Mike S. Adams
That is true! I know I’m going by feelings, but wouldn’t it be nice if a Pro-Godly Pro-Family company or candidate actually won. My deterministic friends all say Rejoice! This proves the end is near! I’m not comfortable with that. I want righteousness to prosper like Tim Tebow Adam LaRoche, etc. I know God is sovereign and Satan, Wells Fargo, paypal, Chevron,AMC are just his lapdogs. Obama has fundamentally changed America and without revival there is no turning back. tHE FACT THAT A 3 TIME ADULTERER AND BULLY IS LEADING IN THE PRIMARIES INDICATES OUR MORAL DEPRAVITY. The other side has a communist and an unconvicted felon!
You can’t sensibly rank Satan in a large list of peers... he’s #2 in power in the creation, with only Jesus (God) being the name above all names.
Just this morning I found myself humorously wondering if some other group than homosexuals were so aggressively positioned on TV as gays have been, or even in webcomics, out of all proportion to their population?
Ignore the moral issues of homosexuality for a moment as I beat this horse.
Imagine if every sitcom, cop show or webcomic featured one or more wacky affable and thickly accented (just so you know that they are) Germans? If, as a comparative percentage of population, black characters were so pushed they might make all channels seem like BET. Why aren’t the indigenous Americans or Koreans thick as ants on a picnic in all entertainment media?
Whites have been over represented you say? Well, maybe ... but they also made up a large percentage of the whole American population /market and not some tiny group. I’m sure that Asians are pretty dominant in Chinese TV too.
Nothing really compares in entertainment to the homopositioning we see. It’s like it’s been determined that you just cannot be socially relevant in entertainment without the gays.
The last time I went to a Wells Fargo, I was greeted by a security person at the door and escorted to the teller line. The tellers were behind thick glass.
I don’t live in a ghetto. I don’t want to be treated like I do, or like somebody is worried I might steal something.
I do not bank at Wells Fargo.
Our credit union, founded by members of our local churches, is over 50 years old now. I am recognized and greeted with a smile, a cup of coffee, no bullet-proof glass, and no security guard asking me why I am here. Why would I bank anywhere else?
All my sister has ever done was write checks or pay cash. She has never owned a credit or debit card.
LOL, Mike Adams is the best. Plus, I might add, the strong presence of Wells Fago in North Carolina now is due to their underhanded acquisition of Wachovia Bank, a fine institution in the south founded on Christian principals, which was destroyed by collusion of left wing activism and the bankster industry.
It is pretty ridiculous isn’t it Ruru.
People are getting led around by the nose.
It’s sadly common to see “Christian principle” businesses drop these principles like hot potatoes. Even if not because of being acquired, like Wachovia.
Anyhow it’s a sad thing to be. They say misery loves company. It’s true.
The Muslim Brotherhood may have coined the term “Islamophobia” trying to ape the success of gays with homophobia, but they need to really dig in and have Muslim characters positively portrayed in all (and I do mean all) sitcoms and other TV if they want it to wage a culture war.
Brilliant!
Yeah, I gave up on them when they got caught laundering drug money for the Mexican Cartels. But hey, I guess the line is different for everyone.
Spot on.
Mike Adams hits another homerun.
Also, we dumped Wells Fargo the end of last year.
Excellent, as always.
“Probably the only thing Wells cherishes more than butt-humpers is money, and offending customers might cost them a nickel or two.”
And the customer goes where? Corporate America is totally in the tank for the homosexual agenda. When it comes to fighting the culture war our side is in shambles. We have no organized activist army that pressures these corporations the way the other side does. And companies knuckle down easily.
I closed my account with Wells Fargo because of their anti Christian stance...Thrivent is an excellent Christian based investment firm. I moved some there and some elsewhere.
“If Wells is on the naughty list, who’s on the nice?”
Naughty really isn’t the right word is it? Evil is a more appropriate word. But, then again maybe you don’t think spitting in God’s eye is evil.
Thrivent is a Christian based investment firm...
I agree that we’re not fighting back very effectively. But it’s time we started making some noise. So if you ever confront anything like this, make sure you let it be known — vocally — that you are not amused. Hopefully someone will realize that offending the 98 percent of the population that is not deviant has its consequences.
There is no Wells Fargo in my area and I have no use for Pay Pal
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.